edited by ROOERR. FESTA S c b l of Education. Box U-33 The University of Connecticut Storrs, CT 06268
Theodore W. Richards: America's First Nobel Laureate Chemist Sheldon J. Kopperl Grand Valley State Colleges Allendale. MI 49401
Chemists today are used to seeing values for the atomic weights of the elements to three or more decimal places. Few working scientists are concerned about the source of these data or are aware of the tedious quantitative analytical work that was necessarv to obtain values of such accuracv. Theodore William ~ i c g a r d swho , taught analytical and ph;sical chemistry a t Haward from 1889 until his death in 1928, was the person chiefly responsible for these studies. He was honored in 1914 by receiving the Nohel Prize in Chemistry-the first American so recognized although Theodore Roosevelt (Peace) and Albert Michelson (Phvsics) had received earlier Nohel prizes. Richards' chemical investigations went beyond atomic weight determinations and included a variety b f studies in thennochemistry and electrochemistry. Undoubtedly his most important contribution to the profession was his establishment a t Harvard of a maior center of physical chemical research. No longer was it necessary for young graduate student to go to Europe (particularly Germany) to receive the highest quality doctoral preparation. Richards himself, as early as 1901, received an offer of a full professorship from the Universitv of Gottineen-an unnrecedented honor for an ~ m e r i c a ~ - t r a i n chemist. ed ~ m o n ' gthe students who formed a Dart of Richards'research erouo and later headed their own iewis (Berkley), Farrington mijor teams were Gilbert Daniels (Wisconsin), Hobart Willard (Michigan), Arthur Lamb, James Bryant Conant, and Gregory Baxter (all Harvard). Hichards was born in Haverford, Pennsylvnnia, in 1868 to Quaker parents. His father. William Trost Richards, was a seasrape painter whose work ran 11eseen in major Ameriran art museums. I)istrustinr! bwal jchwls, his mother tutored her class of Havson a t home. When he entered the erford College a t age 14, he had had virtually no formal education. When he was six years old, he met Josiah Parsons Cooke, professor of chemistry a t Haward, who by showing the boy the rings of Saturn through a telescope, awakened his interest in science. Poor eyesight simplified Richards' dilemma over whether to become an astronomer or a chemist. After graduating from Haverford, he elected to enter the senior class a t Harvard to obtain a B.S. degree in chemistry. Though he was the youngest member of the class, Richards eraduated in 1886 with hiehest honors. " His friend, Professor ~ o k k eserved , as his graduate advisor a t H a m a d , where Richards continued his pursuit of a doctoral degree. His thesis problem was the accurate determination of the atomic weieht of hvdroeen the exact com. - bv-studvine " position of water. Time-consuming and demanding, the work was accomolished with enormous success. Followine his graduation'in 1888 and a year spent in Europe, ~ i c K a r d s joined the Harvard faculty in 1889 as an assistant lecturer. Advancement came quickly to the enthusiastic investigator. After Cooke's death in 1894, Richards became assistant professor, assuming full responsibility for teaching physical chemistry. In 1901, as a reward for declining Gbttingen's offer, he was promoted to full professor. He was department chair-
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Journal of Chemical Education
Stamp honoring Theodore W
Richards
man from 1903 to 1911, and served the rest of his life as director of the newly created Wolcott Gihbs Memorial Lahoratory. He remained active in teaching and research until just before his death. He was married in 1896 and had three children, one of whom married James Bryant Conant, his former student and later President of Harvard University and Ambassador to West Germany. Once he received his doctorate. Richards continued to investigate atomic weights of the elements. A major observation occurred in 1905 when he recognized that the then current values of many of the atomic weights were significantly in error. He and his students redetermined these values with a higher degree of accuracy and precision than had been possible 40 vears earlier when the Belgian chemist, Jean Stas, had his widely-acrrpted data. Altugether, the Richards invt~stiaators~uhlishedthe ntnniic weiaht> of 25 rlements includkg most of those (e.g., chlorineand silver) used as standards to find other atomic weights. Among the more iniron found in Minnesota. Richards was convinced that the atomic weight of a given wnsuint, a philosophy that had heen element s.a
